Adjusting Sails
by fowl68
Summary: During the Pope's purges thirteen years ago, one heiress vanished without a trace. Two conmen are about to take advantage of that.Eventual Shelos. Based off of Anastasia
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer:** I don't own anything.

**Author's Note**: I was watching Sherlock Holmes and this idea decided to spring itself on me—random, yes. So here I am, staying up far too late to write this. It was indeed inspired by Anastasia and I'm using the animated version as a reference point. If you haven't seen the movie, I am sorely sorry and I insist that you find it on Netflix or on Youtube or something, because it is fantastic.

I'm also going to be trying to expand on relationships and characters that I haven't really written much on before, so if you see something that needs correcting or doesn't seem right, please tell me.

-/-/-/-

_We cannot direct the wind but we can adjust the sails. ~Author Unknown_

-/-/-/-

_The smoke is suffocating and it's difficult to see anything through the flames, but they trudge through because this is what they do. The heat stings his eyes and they must be careful of where they step, lest the floor fall out from underneath them._

_ "Sir! Sir, we found something!"  
He hops carefully through the debris, momentarily distracted by the crack of splintering wood as fire overclaims it. "What is it?"_

_ The man looks slightly uncomfortable. "Well, really sir, it's more of a…some_one."

-/-/-/-

It's the anniversary of That Day and Regal knows that Zelos is likely to be holed up far and away from the crowds of people out today. There are only two anniversaries that matter to Zelos and the next one wasn't until around Celsius Day.

"Have you heard the rumors, sir?" Someone calls.

"What rumors?" Regal asks, frowning.

"They say it's possible that the Alesandre girl could still be alive and that her grandmother is more than willing to pay a generous sum to anyone who can bring her granddaughter back to her."

Regal shakes his head. The rumors come around every year around this time. He doesn't blame people. It had been a mystery for a decade and a half, what had had happened to the Alesandre's only daughter, but Regal is certain that it's going to remain a mystery until the end of time.

The climb up the rickety stairs to the apartment he shares with Zelos is quick, though sometimes Regal swears that one day, one of the steps are going to fall out from beneath his feet. Not that they have much choice in living here. They can't go back to live in Tethe'alla, not with the Pope acting as puppetmaster to the King and out to destroy just about every piece of magic there could be. The elves had retreated behind their borders, rarely coming out, and the half-elves were scrambling to escape persecution.

He and Zelos were part of the old regime and he Pope wouldn't think twice about killing either of them. They'd been reduced to forging papers and smuggling half-elves into Sylvarant and it didn't pay particularly well.

"You can't mope in bed all day." Regal tells him, jerking the curtains open.

Zelos yawns as he rolls over to look at him. "I don't see why not. They're only saying the same old things out there that they said last year, and the year before that and the three before that."

"The rumors are the same, but something else is new." Regal isn't surprised when Zelos' icy blue gaze instantly becomes incredibly focused.

"What's new?"

"The Lady Alesandre is willing to pay, what I hear, is a generous sum to anyone who can bring her granddaughter back to her."

The light fades a little from Zelos' eyes. "Of course she is. She's the only Alesandre left and she's desperate for an heir." The light comes back as though someone flipped a switch. "What happens if we find a girl to be Shera?"

"Zelos, what are you talking about?" Regal is an intelligent man, but sometimes Zelos makes leaps in logic that he simply can't follow.

The redhead sits up. "Think about it, Regal. It wouldn't be hard to find a girl to pretend to be Shera Alesandre. We can teach her what to say, how to walk and talk. We'll dress her up and take her to Meltokio and we get the reward. We're the perfect team to do this. We can finally get out of this crappy apartment and get a decent place."

"That's insane." Regal says flatly. "And you'd probably give the old woman a heart attack once she finds out that it's not the real Shera."

"But that's the _point_. This girl, whoever she is, has to be able to act convincingly enough that Shera's own grandmother can't tell the difference. Besides, it's been twelve years. People change."

"And, hypothetically, if the Lady does find out?"

"By then we'll be long-gone. "

"This doesn't sit right."

"Think about it—no more forging papers, no more dodging the government. "If you don't want money for a reward, I'm sure the old lady can drop the charges on you. You can go home. Don't you want to go home? To Altamira with Alicia?" Regal stiffens. Zelos knows better than to bring that up. Zelos catches the movement. "For Alicia."

Regal struggles with himself for a moment before deciding. "…Fine. For Alicia."

-/-/-/-

Kuchinawa is leaning by the village gate, arms crossed and eyes glittering coldly. "So you're leaving."

Sheena glances at him. "Isn't that what you wanted?"

"I didn't think you'd actually do it. You've been known to be a coward."

Sheena glares at him. "I'm not afraid of anything."

"You mean other than lightning, right? Because you jump four miles in the air during a thunderstorm."

This is what Sheena hates so much about Kuchinawa sometimes. He knows her too damn well. They'd been friends, once. They weren't ever terribly close. Not really. But friends are friends, especially in a village as small as Mizuho where there were really only three people in their generation. Her, Kuchinawa and his older brother, Orochi.

If you had never seen Kuchinawa and Orochi, you would never know that they were brothers. Kuchinawa is a blazing summer's day to his brother's calm autumn night. But they do look alike. Their dark hair refuses to stay down half the time and they smile the same.

"I don't have to listen to this anymore." She says, striding past him.

"And where are you going to go?" Kuchinawa called after her.

Sheena doesn't answer and keeps walking. But he does bring up a point. Where was she going to go? Baby steps, she reminds herself. Don't focus on the big picture. Ozette was the closest village. She'd go there first so she could figure out a plan.

Some part of her—the lonely orphan part—wants to try and find her birth parents, but she has no idea where to start. All she had was her name and that she'd been found in the Gaoracchia Forest by her grandfather when she was a little girl. It wasn't much to go on.

"Ozette, huh?" Corrine comments as they pass the fork in the road.

Sheena glances at the creature on her shoulder. Corrine was a small Summon Spirit, about the size of a house cat and he weighed even less. "What, is there a problem?"

"I'm just that Ozette's a small village. How're you going to find anything there?"

Sheena glances down at the necklace that hangs around her neck, that's hung around her neck for as long as she can remember. The pendant can fit in the palm of her hand and it has two circles, each with runes inscribed around it. In the center is a golden tree.

"I told you, I'm not expecting to find anything."

"But if you go looking in Ozette, you probably won't find much. They don't have much in the way of great libraries and old ruins."

"Ruins? How old do you think this pendant is?"

Corrine gives his version of a shrug. "Dunno. But it's worth a shot."

Sheena glances at the sign in the center of the fork in the road. The one pointing right read Ozette. The one pointing left, Asgard. And beyond Asgard were the big cities. Sybak and Meltokio, both of which might have some answers for her. "So, what, you're saying I should go to Asgard?"

"Sounds like a better place to start than Ozette."

"If you say so."

-/-/-/-

"I'm beginning to think that this is impossible." Regal says. It's their fourth day of looking at possible candidates and so far, none had made even the preliminary cut. "Your standards are too high."

"They have to be." Zelos replies, stuffing his hands in his pockets. "If we want to fool the Lady, we need high standards."

Regal glances at him. "Do you even remember what Shera Alesandre looks like?"

"I remember." Zelos says softly. Of course he does. He can't forget that face, those mischievous eyes, the wide grin. Hard as he tries, he can't forget them.

-/-/-/-

"What visa?" Sheena asks.

"An exit visa. Without one, you can't go through the Pass."

"But I _need_ to get to Asgard."

The guards shrug. The girl had obviously been living under a rock for the past ten years. The visas had been a routine thing ever since the Pope stopped allowing half-elves in Tethe'alla. "Sorry. No exit visa, no ticket."

Sheena snarls softly under her breath and starts walking away. Why did she listen to Corrine? Ozette would have been easier. Perhaps she could have gone to Altamira from there. Someone touches her shoulder and she looks back at an elderly woman.

"I heard your trouble with the guards." The woman says.

Sheena tries for a smile. "Yeah. They should really have a sign or something. It'd probably save them some time."

"If you want travel papers, you should go and see Zelos Wilder. He can help."

"Where can I find this guy?"

"In an abandoned church outside of Luin. If you follow these mountains west, you can get there by tomorrow night. But if anyone asks, you didn't hear it from me."

Sheena smiles sweetly. "Heard what?"

The old woman laughs before hobbling away. This new generation had quite a lot of spunk. Corrine pokes his head out of her pack. Sheena glanced back at him. "You ever hear about this guy?"

Corrine shakes his head before crawling out to get to his customary place on her shoulder. "Do you really think he can help?"

"It isn't as though there's much choice." Sheena reminds him. "We can try the Ossa Trail, but that's on the northeast side of these mountains and it's at least a month's ride away. It'll be winter by then and we won't be able to get through the pass." She scratches at Corrine's ears absentmindedly. She rolls the name on her tongue. "Zelos Wilder. It sounds a bit familiar."

"Maybe someone in Mizuho mentioned it once." Corrine suggests. It's perfectly plausible. Mizuho seemed to hear about everything in the world, whether it be through notes passed through pigeons or late-night telephone calls or even meetings in alleyways.

"Maybe."

-/-/-/-

The church is the only thing remotely standing other than Luin in the distance. There might have been other buildings there once—perhaps enough to make a small town—but now there are only crumbling ruins left. The church must once have been grand, but now the mosaics are missing pieces, the colored glass windows broken. Bricks are missing and there are chunks of the stone stairs that are gone. The main doors are blocked with debris.

Sheena listened for any sounds at all, but there were none other than the wind whistling through the holes in the windows. "Hello?" She called, peering in through a dusty window.

"Maybe this Wilder guy already left." Corrine suggested.

"If he did, I am going to track him down and punch him. Think you can fit through there?" Sheena asks, indicating the hole in the corner of the window. "See if anyone's in there?"

It takes some careful wriggling and squeezing and Sheena's hands are a little cut up from making sure the glass didn't turn Corrine into slices when he got through, but he made it. Sheena can barely make out the furry blur dashing through the building.

-/-/-/-

Luin was a much more populated area than Asgard and with a heavier traffic flow. It's easier for them to try and find a Shera look-alike, but so far, their acting had been lacking.

Sadly, the church is a better place to live than their apartment back in Asgard. The mattresses that were in the bedrooms on the second floor of the church were unusable and the blankets were threadbare with a few moth holes, but enough blankets folded together make sleeping on the cold, half-rotted wooden floors bearable. There's an unbelievable amount of dust, but they'd managed to coax out some mostly clean water from the pump out back into an old bucket and thrown the water across the floors.

Zelos is poking through the other rooms to see if there's anything useful when he hears scratching. There had been a few rats here when they first went through the rooms—after having broken down the door to the back kitchen where the wood had warped from the heavy rain in this area and gotten stuck—but there hadn't been any sign of them for a few days.

"Regal…" Zelos calls quietly down the hall. "You hear something?"

Regal's head pokes out from the room he'd claimed as his. "No." But now that he's listening for something, he can hear the scratching. They're both going down the stairs in the next instant to the sanctuary where the prayers had taken place, but they stop suddenly when they see a small fox on the step below them.

The fox looks up at them and there's an awareness, an intelligence in those eyes that isn't animalistic in the least. Both men jump when they hear it speak. "Sheena! There _are_ people here!"

The fox is down the stairs in three leaps, leaving trails of dust in its wake.

Regal and Zelos stare after it, dumbfounded. "I'm not imagining things, am I?"

"If you are, then so am I."

Zelos glances at him. "That fox was talking to somebody."  
"A late tryout, perhaps?"

They finish going down the stairs carefully and their eyes immediately focus on a girl—young woman, really—looking at the remains of the mosaics curiously. The breeches and loose violet…Zelos didn't want to call it a robe, but that's almost what it looked like, do little to hide a most certainly feminine figure. There's a traveling pack over her shoulder and the fox is nowhere to be seen.

Sheena turns at the sound of footsteps. There are two men standing at the base of the stairs. One is older, probably in his thirties by now if she had to hazard a guess, with blue hair tied back rather messily. His clothes are worn, but they might once have been of good quality.

The other is closer to her own age, with a mane of crimson hair kept out of his face by a headband. He has one hand on the hilt of the sword hanging at his hip. He was left-handed, Sheena noticed, as the sword was worn on the right side.

"Who are you and what're you doing here?" The redhead asks.

Sheena takes three steps towards them before the floor is falling out from under her and she has to grip the splintered ends of wood to keep from falling. She can't see anything below her and that doesn't strike her as a good sign. The men are immediately running towards her, each one gripping an arm to get her up and out.

"This a habit of yours, hunny? Falling into holes?"

Now that Sheena's on (mostly) steady ground, she can properly take in what had happened. The wood had rotted through and her weight had been the last straw. She glares at the redhead. "You call me 'hunny' again, and I'll break your nose." Zelos takes her word for it. That tone of voice isn't one to be tested.

"Are you hurt?" The other man asks.

Sheena shakes her head and gets to her feet. The room spins a little when she does, but other than that, she's fine. "No. It takes more than a hole in the ground to hurt me. And why _is_ that anyway?"

The men blink at her. "How are we supposed to know?" The redhead says. "We just met you."

"Not the part about me. The part of the hole in the ground. We're on ground level."

"There's a basement." Regal says as though it explained everything.

Sheena makes a sound of acknowledgement and Regal thinks that she's very calm for someone who had nearly fallen through the floor.

"You never answered my question." Zelos says. "Why're you here?"

"I'm looking for a Zelos Wilder. That you?"

"That depends. Do I owe you money?"

"Not that I know of."

"Then yeah, I'm him. Why'd you come looking for me?"

Sheena shrugged the strap of her pack higher onto her shoulder. "I need travel papers and word on the street is that you're the man to see."

"You a half-elf?"

Sheena bristled. "Let's say I am. Does it make a difference?"

"Half-elves are impossible to get over the border legally. Blood tests are performed on anyone that's suspected." Zelos explained. "If you're a half-elf and trying to get to Tethe'alla—though I can't imagine why—there are…less legal…ways of getting there."

"No, I'm not. One hundred percent human."

"Good. Then we're in business, Ms…?"

"Fujibayashi. Sheena Fujibayashi."

Zelos narrowed his eyes at her. It was too dim to see her properly and he couldn't detect much of an accent, so she could be from anywhere. "Where're you from?"

"Does it matter?" Sheena countered.

"She has you there, Zelos." Regal extended a hand out to her. "Regal Bryant."

Sheena smiled as she shook his hand. "Nice to meet you."

"We should conduct this meeting where we have some more light."

Sheena's nose wrinkles. "And where I don't feel like I'm about to sneeze every time I take a breath. Of all places, why here?"

"It's out of the way and near a popular place." Zelos replies as they walk back to the kitchen. The kitchen didn't have any food left when they'd checked, though there were still plates and glasses sitting on the table, still pots and pans hanging from underneath the cupboard. Cobwebs and thick layers of dust coat everything, but it's like looking at a faded photograph.

"Seems like a bit of a contradiction there." Sheena squints into the light when Zelos opens the back door.

"I'm a complicated guy. What can I say?" Zelos pulls a pad of paper and a pen out of his back pocket. He's about to ask the usual questions—height, weight, birthday—when he glances at her and then he can't stop looking at her.

It's not that she's the most beautiful woman he's ever seen. She isn't. Black hair is messily held back by a clip, though a few locks have escaped it. Her eyes are slightly slanted, her irises hazel.

"Regal…I think we just found our girl."

Regal glances at Zelos before looking Sheena over. Zelos isn't wrong. The basic features are all there. "She could be."

Sheena stays still as Zelos circles her slowly, but finally she whirls around. "Why are you circling me? What, were you a vulture in another life?"

Zelos chuckles at that. "Don't think so, darling."

"So then what's with the circling?"

Zelos shakes his head. "It's nothing. You said something about travel papers."

"Yes. I need to get to Meltokio."

"Meltokio?" Regal and Zelos repeated.

"Yeah. I heard that there's a Research Academy there. They might be able to help me."

"Help you with…what?"

"My village found me wandering around Gaoracchia Forest when I was about seven years old. All I had on me were my clothes and this pendant." Sheena holds up the chain to demonstrate. "I don't know what this pendant means, but someone in Meltokio might."

Zelos did some mental math. "And before you were seven?"

"It's weird, but I don't remember anything other than my village. Nothing from before I was eight. This pendant is my one clue and I'm going to get my answers. So, can you two help me or can't you?"

The pieces fit together in Zelos' mind, but he shakes them away. They fit because he wants them to fit, that's all. "Regal, you still got the tickets?"

"Of course. We were going to Meltokio ourselves and we have three tickets."

Zelos sees the question on Sheena's face before she asks it. "Unfortunately," He cuts in smoothly. "The last ticket is for Shera Alesandre." Sheena just looks at them blankly. Had she really not heard any of the rumors? "She disappeared, about ten years back."_ (Twelve years, seven months and nine days, not that Zelos has been counting)_

"We were going to reunite the Lady with her grandmother." Regal tells her.

"Although," Zelos shifts his weight to one leg. "Now that you mention it, you kind of resemble her. The same eyes."

"Same smile."

"You're the right age, the right physical type…"

Sheena shook her head and looked at the both of them. "You're trying to tell me that you think that _I_ am this lost heiress or whatever?"

"I'm just saying that I've seen dozens upon dozens girls from across Sylvarant and not one of them looks as much as the Alesandre heiress as you."

"You're both insane." She said, turning to walk away.

Zelos is quickly in front of her again. "Maybe, but why this time? You don't remember what happened to you."

"And no one knows what happened to her."

"You're looking for clues in Meltokio."

"And her only family is in Meltokio." Regal points out.

"It's a possibility."  
Sheena rolls her eyes. "The chances of me being an heiress to some rich family are about as high as you two being royalty."

Regal and Zelos are carefully not looking at each other. That comment had been a little too close to the mark. "Wish we could help, but that third ticket is for Shera. Good luck."

Zelos walks back into the church, Regal on his heels. "You're not going to tell her about the scam?" Regal asks quietly.

"I don't see why we should. All she wants is to go to Meltokio."

"You're conning her into agreeing." Regal accuses.

"I don't see why you're complaining. Everybody gets what they want this way."

Sheena stays outside, staring at the remains of the church. She had no way of getting travel papers_ (Going back to Mizuho isn't an option. Not at all)_ and she needed to get to Meltokio. The problem was that Mizuho and Ozette were all in the east, separated from the rest of Tethe'alla by tall mountains. The only way to get to the big cities, like Meltokio and Sybak, from Tethe'alla was by boat. The only problem was that, since it was winter, the waters up north had almost completely frozen over by now. There was supposed to be a bridge being built, but that wouldn't be ready for years and years.

Sheena isn't stupid. She'd grown up in Mizuho, where manipulating people was how you got food on the table. She knows when she's being conned and these two, they were most certainly conmen. But that didn't mean that they didn't have train tickets to Meltokio that she needed.

"Zelos!" She yanks open the door and jogs after him. "Zelos, hold up!" Both men turn to her. "If I don't remember who I am, then who's to say I'm not a princess or an heiress or whatever this Shera girl is, right?"

Zelos nodded. "Okay…go on."

"And if I'm not Shera, her grandmother will know right away and it's all just an honest mistake."

"But if you _are_ the heiress, you will finally know who you are and you'll get your family back." Zelos points out.

Sheena's mind automatically rebels at that. She wants to tell him that in no uncertain terms, her family is back in Mizuho, even if Grandpa is in a coma.

"He's right." Regal told her. "Either way, it gets you to Meltokio."

Sheena pretends that this hasn't already occurred to her. "Right!"

"So you're with us?"

She smiles. "Yeah, I'm with you."


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer:** I don't own anything.

**Author's Note**: Happy New Year's everybody.

-/-/-/-

_You cannot teach a man anything. You can only help him discover it within himself. - Galileo Galilei_

-/-/-/-

Sheena accepts the meat buns wrapped in a napkin that Regal hands her gratefully. They'd bought them at the train station, since they'd been a bit early. "So how did you meet Wilder? You two don't exactly strike me as fast friends."

"We worked together, back before the Pope took over."

"But you're from Altamira." Regal glances up at her and she smiles. "Your accent's hard to spot, but it's there. How long've you been away?"

"It'll be nine years in the spring."

"I'm sorry. I know it might not mean much, but I am. I know how hard it is to leave home."

Regal hesitates before saying, "I didn't leave. I was forced out."

Sheena swallows the bite of her meat bun before asking, "How come?"

"…I was accused of attempted murder on someone I loved."

Sheena doesn't say anything for long moments. What could she say to that?

"Thank you."

Sheena looks up at him, startled. "What for?"

Regal's smile is sad and a little bitter. "For not asking whether I did."

"…Well, to be honest, I don't think it really matters." Sheena said slowly. Regal looked at her, puzzled. "Regardless of whether or not you tried to kill that person, I've chosen to travel with you. For better or worse, I'm stuck with you and Wilder. And if you _did_ do it, I've got no moral high ground. I've done things I'm not proud of. Everyone has. Some people's are just a little worse, that's all."

"How sweet." Zelos says as he comes into the train compartment.

"Well I wouldn't expect you to get it, oh King of Compassion."

"Your words wound me so." Zelos squeezes between their legs and moves to sit by the window when a low growl stops him. He glares at Corrine. "The mutt gets the window seat."

In the few days that they've been travelling together—after the men had gotten over the initial second shock of a talking fox-it's been made clear that Corrine and Zelos have no patience for each other. Then again, neither did Sheena and Zelos.

Zelos let himself fall into the seat beside Sheena. "Why're you always fiddling with that thing?"

Sheena looks up at him, hands still on her pendant. "Do I need a reason to fiddle?"

"I'd call you a fiddler, but I think you're tone deaf."

Sheena snorts and has to slouch a bit to relieve some of the stiffness in her back. The train was due to arrive in Palmacosta by tonight, where they would try to see if they had some of those newer boats, the ones that could cut through ice. "Right. I'm as tone deaf as you are blind."

"Stop slouching. Sit up straight. Remember, you're an Alesandre. They're high class people."

"And how is it exactly that you know what high class people do or don't do?"  
Zelos ignore the barb in that. This isn't a subject he really feels like broaching with her. "I make it my business to know."

"Uh-_huh_." Regal glances between them and can see an argument already starting. He looks over at Corrine who gives his version of a shrug. The two of them had begun keeping tallies of who won these spats of Sheena vs. Zelos. So far, Sheena was up by three. "…Zelos, do you really think I could be...a noblewoman?" Sheena's nose wrinkles at the very thought.

Zelos flashes her a smile. "You know I do, darling." It's the only one of his pet names she'll allow him to call her because, according to her, it was the only one that didn't make her sound like a common whore.

Sheena smiles and it's poisonously sweet. "Then stop bossing me around."

Bossing? He wasn't bossing. He was _suggesting._ There was a difference. Regal snorted a laugh at the expression on Zelos' face and ticked off another win for Sheena. "You're quite the independent, Sheena."

Zelos offered her a razor smile. "Yeah, I hate that in women."

Sheena glared sideways at him. "That's because you can't handle one."

"Excuse me?"

"You're so busy being misogynistic and sexist that you've forgotten that women do, in fact, have brains and that yes, we can use them and no, we weren't put on this earth to wait on men hand and foot. So when one of us does something that suggests that we can think for ourselves, you think we're being too bold."

Regal is fighting not to smile. Sheena was going to turn Meltokio on its ear with that attitude. Maybe that was for the better.

"So now you know what men are thinking?"

"It isn't hard with brains that size. No offense, Regal." She adds hurriedly. Sheena likes Regal. He's quiet and polite, but he says the most interesting things if you could get him to talk.

"Don't mind me. Please, continue with your rant on the black marks of men." Regal says, amused.

"Don't encourage her." Zelos isn't sure why Sheena rubs him the wrong way. She isn't an annoying person. But she challenges him and doesn't think twice about rising to his challenges. Perhaps it's because no one's ever really done that before. Regal, good company though he is, is a calm soul and didn't usually argue with him much.

"From what I've seen, I don't have to."

Sheena shook her head, wondering when the arguing shifted from her and Zelos to him and Regal. Not that there was really much comparison between the two. Regal responded with complete calm in the face of Zelos' jabs.

"I'm going for a walk. Corrine, you coming?"

The fox shakes his head. "If I move, he'll steal my seat."

Sheena laughed. Corrine had a point and while her seat was open, she wouldn't put it past Zelos to steal Corrine's just to spite him.

-/-/-/-

Zelos gets volunteered to find Sheena so she doesn't miss lunch. Really, the train wasn't so big, so it shouldn't be this hard to find her. He goes all the way to the front of the train and finds nothing. So he starts towards the back.

There's laughing and giggling in one of the back compartment. Zelos opens the door to third class, where they're sitting on locked crates covered in threadbare blankets. There's a crowd of children towards the back and in the center of the crowd is Sheena.

He can't make out what she's saying, but the pitch of her voice keeps changing and she's making strange motions with her hands and then he realizes that she's making shadow puppets using a lantern with cracked glass. The kids are laughing and listening intently.

"Do you know that girl?" A woman with lines on a face too young for them asks.

"I really don't." Zelos replies. This wasn't the fiery young woman who argued with him, wasn't the slightly embarrassed one that had fallen through the floor. This Sheena was vibrantly alive.

"This is the first time in a while that I have seen those children smile like that."

"Where are you from?"

"Izlood. But there hasn't been enough fish for awhile now. We nearly starved last winter. But Palmacosta will bring new opportunities for us. It will be hard for a time, and perhaps these children will not be allowed to be children for some time, but she's brought them some childhood back. It's more than I've been able to do."

Zelos doesn't know what to say to that. He knows that Sylvarant is a poorer country than Tethe'alla. Hell, he'd been living there for the past ten years. But he hadn't known things were quite that bad. The Pope had no power in Sylvarant, but the two countries did so much business together, were so entwined in terms of economy, that his decisions in Tethe'alla affected Sylvarant.

But Sylvarant was a fundamentally different country than Tethe'alla. Sylvarant has richer farming land, is much more natural than Tethe'alla, from whom a large fraction of business came from tourism to the big cities. Sylvarant, whose government had been overthrown several times in the last few decades because of rebels, couldn't support businesses like that so when the Pope made decisions that were better for Tethe'alla, the Sylvaranti couldn't keep up.

Sheena glances up and catches sight of the redhead standing in the doorway. He doesn't fit in this car. Not literally, of course. There was room in the car for several more people. But he doesn't _fit_. Something about his posture is too straight, the pale skin and vibrant hair too bright for these people who have lived in small places where colors are subtle rather than bright.

Zelos doesn't say that it's time for lunch because these people don't look like they've eaten in a while_ (They're thin, so thin. They're bone lightly sheathed in skin, nothing more)_, but Sheena seems to understand because she smiles apologetically at the kids.

"Sorry, guys. I've gotta get going."

Immediately there are protests. Why, Sheena? Can't you stay a little longer? We'll miss you! Remember to come back, Sheena!

She ruffles their hair and pats some of them on the head as she carefully steps her way out of them. She stumbles a bit towards the end and Zelos moves instinctively to catch her arm to help her regain her balance.

Zelos can remember the noblewomen in Meltokio and they'd moved like they were walking on air. Sheena isn't graceful, not by a longshot. Although, if she managed to fall through the floor of one of their dinner parties, Zelos might not mind so much just because the looks on the nobles' faces would be completely worth it.

"You're a little clumsy, you know that?" Zelos tells her.

"Truly, your observation skills are of the greatest in the world, Wilder."

He's not sure why it bothers him that she calls him by his last name more than half the time. Most people never use his last name, even if they know it. The rare times that they've gotten along, that's when she uses his first name.

"…I think we got off on the wrong foot." Zelos says slowly.

She looks sideways at him. "Is this an apology?"

"Hey, who said anything about an apology? I'm just saying that maybe we should start over."

"Oh really? So, what, you can try again to make me one of your hunnies?" Sheena had known as soon as he'd spoken that Zelos Wilder is a ladies' man. Or he thought of himself as one.

"Yes, why would I go after a cultured woman who actually likes me when I have a sarcastic, violent banshee who hates my guts standing right here? It's such a mystery."

"Hey, I am _not_ a banshee."

"All evidence to the contrary, darling."

-/-/-/-

They play cards for a bit—really, there weren't many things to do—and they're convinced that Sheena cheats because really, how could she win every time? When they ask her, Sheena just grins. "I was taught cards by the best card player in my village."

"You mean you were taught how to cheat." Zelos grumbled.

"It's only cheating if you get caught." She'd said.

They're set to arrive at ten in Palmacosta. The sky darkened about an hour ago and Sheena is curled into her seat, coat thrown over her to keep warm. Corrine is snoozing on her stomach and his body rises and falls with her steady breathing.

Zelos has taken the other window seat. The book in his hands has worn, yellowed pages. Some have tears on the sides from flipping a page too fast and others are dog-eared to remind him of his favorite parts. He must have read this book a hundred times by now and yet he never tires of it.

The train is stopping and Regal slides open the compartment door. "They're coming around to check visas."

Zelos looks up, startled. But this was within Sylvarant. Visas weren't necessary. "What?"

"They're papal soldiers. The Pope's crest is on their armor."

"The Pope has no jurisdiction here."

"Now isn't the time to be worrying about that. We need to come up with a plan. I say we go to the baggage car until we start moving again." The entire point of going this way was that they didn't have visas. Zelos had planned to forge them some in Palmacosta.

Zelos shakes his head. "Too risky. Papal soldiers are careful. I say we get off here and walk the rest of the way."

They get their stuff together and Zelos shakes Sheena's shoulder hard. The next thing he knows, there's a fist cracking across his face and Sheena's sitting up, looking like she's ready to bolt. Zelos touches his nose tentatively and winces. "We've gotta go." Sheena grabs Corrine, who's still waking up, under one arm and is dragging her coat and pack behind her. "I think you broke my nose!"

Sheena rolled her eyes as she followed Regal towards the back of the train. "Don't be such a baby. What's the problem?"

Regal's voice floats over his shoulder. "Papal soldiers are on the train."

"In _Sylvarant?_"

"That's what we said."

The baggage car is freezing and Sheena swears that she can see icicles forming on the ceiling. The rusty train doors groan and moan as they slide them open. It's as they're hopping down and grabbing the luggage that Sheena brings up a point. "Do we know where we are?"

"Somewhere between the middle of No and Where." Zelos replies. "Why?"

"We can't follow the tracks to Palmacosta."

"I don't see why not."

"No, Zelos. She has point." Regal says. "The Papal soldiers won't stay on the train and they had to get here somehow. We can't use any of the main roads."  
Sheena looks around. Frost is coating the ground and a good portion of the trees had already bared their leaves. "We can go through the forest. It would cut down on time."

"No way. None of us knows Sylvaranti forests. We'll only end up getting ourselves lost."

Sheena sighs. "Do you have a better idea, Wilder? Or are we just going to stand here until we get caught?"

Zelos can feel a restlessness, a need to move _(It feels like grains of sand draining out of an hourglass)_. He knows it won't take the papal soldiers long to check everyone's travel papers and he doesn't want to stick around for any confrontation between them. He and Regal, they're wanted men.

"…Fine. But if you get us lost-"

"You'll what?" Sheena interrupts, eyes glinting.

He can't hurt her because she's his way back into Tethe'alla, to the reward money_ (Not that he would. He was raised better than that)_. And she knows that.

Regal is about to interrupt them when someone shouts, "Hey! You three!"

None of them stop to think as they bolt, almost as one, towards the trees. There's more shouting and pounding of armored feet. Corrine has disappeared from Sheena's arms and she's working on instinct. The tree's bark is rough and cold beneath her hands, but she ignores it as she climbs.

She can hear Zelos already._ Did you have the sudden urge to build a tree house or something? What the hell were you thinking?_

But Sheena knows that they can't stay ahead of the soldiers for long. They're burdened with luggage and the soldiers are fast. But their armor makes it awkward to climb and she leaps nimbly from branch to branch, keeping speed with Regal and Zelos on the ground.

It's when they start shooting at her that she knows they're in trouble.

The second the first shot goes off—and the bullet hits the branch not three inches from her foot—Zelos and Regal are turning around and it's suddenly a blaze of motion. Regal is all quick jabs and powerful kicks where Zelos is speed and the point of a sword. Sheena had thought that Zelos had simply picked the sword up from somewhere—as many people were want to do in days like these—and that he had no formal training.

Sheena was proven wrong. She'd received some instruction on swordsmanship, but the weapon hadn't felt right in her hand. Still, she knows that Zelos' style of swordsmanship is very different than the one she'd failed to learn. Mizuho's had been all about pushing and pulling and creating sharp arcs with blades. Zelos' used the tip more than the blade and it wasn't as grounded as Mizuho's.

As one of the soldiers makes the mistake of running under her branch, she drops down, being sure to give the soldier a vicious kick to the temple as she does to knock him out. She has her cards in her hand which—over time, if she used them often enough—they'd drain her energy.

Her body's on autopilot as she flips and twists and uses small bursts of power to push the soldiers back a foot or so. Just enough so that she can knock them out in the next blow.

Somewhere along the way, Zelos has moved apart from the others and there are three guards closing in on him. There's a brief flash of flames and two of them are on little more than ashes, but the third is behind him and he can't see him.

"Duck!" She yells at him and she flings a card past him. Zelos' adrenaline makes him listen and he feels something whiz by his head and there's suddenly something electric charging the air. He turns and sees the card plastered to the soldier's armor, his body still twitching as electricity ran its course through his system.

His tongue burns to ask what she'd just done, but he puts it aside as they take care of the last remaining guards. They're all panting and looking at the bodies when Regal and Zelos both turn to look at her.

The first words out of Zelos' mouth are, "What was _that?"_

"You act like you've never seen someone fight before. And I could ask you the same question! You used magic!"

He'd hoped she hadn't caught that. It had been instinctive, the spell out of his mouth and magic bursting from his hands before he could think to stop it. "I don't see why I'd have to answer the question since you already know it."

"Are you a half-elf?"

The woman was as subtle as a battering ram. "No, I'm not." Zelos snapped.

"So how'd you do it?"

"I could ask you the same question."

"I asked first."

They're stubborn enough that their arguments often end up this childish. Regal sometimes wonders that if he let their arguments run their course, if they would ever end.

"…I was injected with elven blood, back in Tethe'alla."

Small creases form around Sheena's eyes as she frowns in confusion. "Since when does Tethe'alla have technology like that?"

Zelos shrugs. "No idea. But they injected me with it and now I can use magic." He narrowed his eyes at her. "Your turn. How do you fight with…what are these, cards?"

Sheena rocks onto the balls of her feet and she looks like she's getting ready to run. But she doesn't. "…I'm from Mizuho. It's one of our arts there. We inhibit the cards with seals, like the kind that are on your magic circles, and with some mana, we can release the magic."

They both stare at her until she grows uncomfortable. "What?"

"You're from Mizuho?"

"Didn't I just say that?"

"They're outlaws under the Pope's rule. He says they're traitors and that they use unnatural magic to commit assassinations."

Sheena's face grows stony. "Do you believe everything you hear?"

"No. But considering what you just did…."

"What, am I unnatural too?" She asks, temper rising.

Regal shakes his head almost immediately. "Of course not. But you have to understand, we were raised on the rumors of what Mizuho did behind the curtain…They were never any good rumors."

It angers Sheena, the human need to find the worst in things they didn't understand. The world only head about the aftermath of Mizuho's actions, the aftermath of the assassinations and the spying. They never heard about the assignation victims' crimes, never heard about the plans the people had for the secrets they'd stolen.

They don't know about the Mizuhoan people. They don't know about festival time, when the entire village strung up handmade lanterns and everyone wore their finest clothes—even if their finest clothes were threadbare and worn. The way they shared what wealth they had. They never heard about the way that everyone worked, everyone sewed, everyone fought. It was an equal opportunity place and Sheena thinks that there's no village that she could be prouder to hail from._ (But it's not her village because she wasn't born there. No one knows where she was born, but it wasn't there)_

Sheena turns to Zelos, who hadn't answered. "Do you think I'm unnatural?"

The look on Zelos' face as he observes her isn't one she's ever seen before. Something's changed, Zelos thinks. The Sheena he'd known before wouldn't have known to fight like that. But it did explain something._ I think you broke my nose!_ It had been an automatic reaction to waking with someone too close to her, not a sleepy one.

Sheena is fire and steel and feminism, but that's not all she is. She's laughter and compassion and mischief and it's an offsetting combination. But it isn't unnatural.

Zelos shakes his head. "Not at all."

-/-/-/-

When Sheena wakes, Regal is already going through the cool-down of his workout. Zelos is the heaviest sleeper of all of them and has a firm rule that he doesn't wake up until at least dawn. Sheena watches Regal until he's finished.

It's only then that she asks, "Where did you learn to fight like that?"  
"I was Master of the King's Guard in Altamira."

"Really? So you're in no way related to the Lezareno Company?"

Regal stills. "What makes you say that?"

"The Bryant family has been in control of that company for generations. I figured you might be related."

"You're very perceptive." It's the closest Regal will come to admitting it. His family disagreed with the King even before the Pope was pulling the strings. When Regal joined the King's Guard, they'd promptly disowned him.

Sheena smiles. "I'll take that as a compliment."

"And who taught you to fight?"

Sheena chuckled a bit. "Pick someone in Mizuho and one of them probably had a hand in my education, one way or another."

"Everyone knows how to fight?"

"Just about. We start learning from when we can walk." But she'd already learned how to walk and talk and run and dance by the time she came to Mizuho.

"Why did you leave?"

"I wanted to find where I came from. Mizuho will always be home, but sometimes I wonder if my parents are still alive, if I had any brothers or sisters."

"Well, if you are the Alesandre heiress…no to all of those."

"They're all dead?"

"The Pope ordered them killed."

"What for?"

"No one knew."

"Where do you get your information, Regal?"

"I was jailed for some time after they suspected me of killing Alicia."

"Alicia…that's a nice name. Is she your lover?"

"We never got to that stage, but yes."

Sheena rests her arms on bent knees. "What's she like?"

Regal tries to find words to describe Alicia. "She's a bit like you, in a way."

"How so?"

"She's snarly when she gets backed into a corner." That makes Sheena laugh. "She's…lovely."

Sheena smiles. Regal talked about her like he'd never seen anything like her, like he never would again. "You're a romantic."

Regal looks down at her, surprised. No one had ever thought to put that word to him. "Most people wouldn't say so."

"Well I'm not most people, am I?"

"And thank the Goddess for that." Regal and Sheena turn to Zelos, who's stretching and cracking his spine. "One of you is far more than enough."  
"Good morning to you too."

"Shall we get going for Palmacosta then? If we make good time, we might catch the boat to Sybak."

"Sybak? I thought the old lady was in Meltokio."

Zelos shook his head. "Not during winter she's not. She goes further south to Sybak. And no one gets near her without convincing her first cousin."

"You're telling me that I have to _prove_ I'm the heiress? Show up, obviously. Look nice, yes. But lie?"

"How do you know it's a lie? What if it's true?" Zelos retorted.

"You don't even believe that yourself!"

Zelos doesn't like that she can read him like that. "All it is is one more step to finding out who you are."

Sheena put her hands on her hips. "Look at me. I'm not exactly heiress material."

"Clearly. But we can help with that."

"Oh really?"

"Yup. We can teach you while we walk."

"If you say so."

Their teaching is intensive and includes lots of detail-memorizing. Luckily, Mizuho had already trained Sheena's memory to the point where she remembered just about anything after hearing it once or twice.

Shera Alesandre had been born in the Alesandre summer family home that stood on a cliff overlooking the sea. It was two days' ride from Meltokio. And the first time she rode a horse, she'd been four years old and had very nearly fallen off.

"You spent a lot of time in the kitchen." Regal tells her. They speak as though they're telling her things that happened to her rather than this Shera Alesandre. They need to. It's part of getting her into the role. "And you used to scare the living daylights out of the cook when you were in there without him."

"Why?"

"You'd make the most incredible messes when you were trying to cook."

"And one time, you ran out from the kitchen into the forest because the cook was so mad." Zelos tells her and there's a slight softness in his eyes when he says that that Sheena doesn't quite know how to describe. "You hopped across rocks to get across the brook since you were so small, but the cook just tried to run through it. He ended up slipping and falling. And you wrote the book on being adventurous."

"But you were always very respectful of your father." Regal says.

"He used to give you the sternest of looks after you got into your mischief."

And if it's not memorizing details, it's learning how to walk and talk. "You slouch when you walk." Zelos tells her.

"I do not." Mizuho was very strict on posture.

"You're right." Regal says, studying how she's standing. "But it isn't a noble's posture. It's military."

Sheena nearly jumps when Zelos has one hand on her shoulder and one gently pushing on the small of her back. Instinctively, she arches away from him. "_That's_ how you're supposed to stand."

"The other problem is balance." Zelos says the next day.

"I have balance." Sheena says hotly.

Regal and Zelos both give her raised eyebrows. Sighing with frustration, Sheena climbs a tree and walks along the branches. "See? Not falling."

"Now do it with posture!" Zelos calls. Sheena arches her back that little bit and nearly falls over. "I rest my case."

"You have to learn to curtsy too."

"And you two know how to do that?" She says doubtfully.

"I had to watch my sister train like this, so yeah, I do." Zelos says. "Keep your back straight and bend your knees."

Sheena obeys and finds it very awkward. "Can't I just bow from the waist?" That was how things were done in Mizuho.

"Sorry. That's for the guys to do." Zelos demonstrates, sweeping one arm outward, and it looks graceful, but the kind of grace that only lots of practice gave you.

Sheena is clumsy eating with a fork and knife. She's used chopsticks for as long as she can remember. She isn't allowed to go to bed until she can be at least adequate with 'normal utensils' as Zelos called them. (He's still trying to figure out how people ate with just two sticks)

"How old's your sister?" Sheena asks Zelos as they're laying out their bedrolls.

Zelos stiffens. "…She's turning fourteen next summer."

"She's a 'proper member of society'?"  
"Why all the questions?"

"Just curious. You know so much about me, but I don't know anything about you."  
"And I'd prefer to keep it that way."

"Fine. 'Night, Wilder."


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer:** I don't own anything.

**Author's Note**:

-/-/-/-

"_It's the possibility of having a dream come true that makes life interesting."_

_-Santago__** (The Alchemist)**_

-/-/-/-

"I lost twelve men because of your information."

"I told you they were on the train."  
"You told me that it was a woman and two conmen. There wasn't supposed to be a fight."

His fists clench on his knees. "She's lived in Mizuho most of her life. Of course she would know how to fight."

"You failed to mention that."  
"I thought it obvious."  
"Apparently not. Where are they now?"

"In Palmacosta. I believe they're trying to get a ship to take them to Sybak."

"Good. I've had to be cautious so far, but if they return to Tethe'alla, caution will no longer be necessary."

-/-/-/-

Zelos knocks on Sheena's door before going in—it's more of a warning than asking for permission. She looks up from a book that, the last time Zelos had seen it, had been sitting in the inn's common room. Sheena eyes the package in folded over his arm cautiously.

"It's only a dress." Zelos reassures her, holding it up for her inspection.

"A dress?" Sheena dog-ears the page and comes to stand in front of him. She takes the skirt in hand and holds it up. "More like a circus tent."

Zelos rolls his eyes. "Just put it on."

"Well I can't very well change while you're in here, now can I?"

"Well, you _could._"

"Out." But it isn't an angry tone. More exasperated than anything.

When Zelos goes downstairs to sit and wait with Regal, the older man simply says, "I assume it went well?"

"Why'd you assume that?"

"I didn't hear any yelling." Corrine, resting quite comfortably on the arm of the couch, snickered.

"You have so much faith in us, don't you?"

"Oh absolutely."

They don't hear the footsteps coming down the stairs. "Guys?"

Both turn to look at Sheena.

"You look wonderful." Regal tells her, getting to his feet.

Zelos is slower to rise, still taking her in. The dress is dark violet with thin spaghetti straps. There was some beading just beneath the bodice and the skirt fell loosely around her calves. She'd combed out her dark hair and left it loose. Zelos hadn't known that her hair was slightly wavy or that it fell to just above her shoulder blades.

Sheena did a little spin to fully show off the dress. It feels strange to not be wearing breeches, but, somehow, Zelos had gotten the right size.

"Now you just have to dance in it." Zelos says. He doesn't say that he thinks she looks beautiful.

Regal glances between them before saying, "Since you're so adept at it, you can teach her."

They both stare at him. "What?"

"Unfortunately, I've two left feet. And I don't see the problem, Zelos. You're a perfectly good dancer."

Regal hears Zelos mutter "Sneaky bastard." before one of his hands goes to her waist, the other taking her right hand. Her left hand goes to his shoulder and at first, it's halting and slow as Regal counts out the rhythm.

"One-two-three, one-two-three…"

They move across the lobby and, slowly, Zelos can feel Sheena start to relax. "Don't look at your feet." He tells ter.

"Why?"

"Because once you start worrying about them so much, you're going to end up on the floor."

Sheena smiled. "Speaking from experience?"

"Heh. Oh yeah. I've never really been a dancing person." Zelos says as he spins her out and brings her back in smoothly.

"Well, it's impossible to tell."

Zelos smirked at her. "Is that a compliment, darling?"

"Don't let it go to your head."

Zelos chuckles. "No, never." He hesitates before adding, "That dress looks good on you, by the way."

Her smile is different this time, softer somehow. "Is that a compliment. Wilder?"

"If it makes you feel better."

"Oh, so you _do_ care." Sheena's foot gets caught underneath the rug and she's flying forward. Zelos manages to keep her upright, but she has to do a weird hop-walk bracing herself on him to get her foot free.

When she's standing upright and turns to comment that, clearly, his lessons on grace hadn't worked, she finds herself falling silent because they're in very close proximity. She can feel his warm breath and he can count her eyelashes.

Zelos is tempted to kiss her. He is, but he swallows hard and takes a step back and walks away.

-/-/-/-

Outside the ship, a winter storm, one of the worst of the year, was raging. Lightning flashed through black clouds, charging the air with the acrid smell of sulfur. The water heaved and tossed, whitecaps bubbling on the surface. The wind howled and whistled and thunder seemed to shake their very bones.

"So much for a peaceful ride to Tethe'alla, huh?" Sheena said quietly. If it had just been the storm, she could have slept through it, but combined with the violent tossing of the ship, it was near impossible.

Zelos, who'd drawn the short straw and didn't get a bunk, looked up at her. "I still think the crew is crazy for trying to go through a storm like this at all."

Sheena gripped one of the bedposts to keep her balance as the ship suddenly tipped. "I'm with you on that one. How Regal's managing to sleep through this, I'll never know."

"Altamira is on the coast. I'm sure there are plenty of storms like this one."

It made sense. "How much further do you think it is?"

"Another couple of hours because of the storm."

"Fantastic." The ship teetered and something rolled out of one of Zelos' bags. Sheena managed to grab it before it went under the bunks. "Hey, what's this?"

"Just a trinket."

"Odd choice of trinket." Sheena said, gently jingling the small bell. "Is it from Tethe'alla? From before you left?"

"…Yeah. I found it when I was a kid and I thought it was an interesting windchime, so…"

"What, you stole a piece of it? Besides, it doesn't seem like a part of a windchime to me."

Zelos tensed. "Oh really? What's it seem like to you then?"

Sheena shrugged, studying it. "I don't know. Something…like a secret almost. Like something to be shared."

"You realize that what you said is entirely contradictory, right?" Zelos said, fighting the memories. She'd had a lucky guess, that was all.

Sheena tossed the bell back to him, which he caught without a problem. "Shut up!"

Zelos smirked at her and slipped the bell into his pocket. He knows all the scratches and dents on the bell, knows them after turning it over and over in his hands._ ("You're too quiet. Stomp your feet when you walk or something." A grin. "That wouldn't be very ladylike, now would it?")_

"Who is this first cousin of the Alesandre's anyway? Weren't they wiped out?"

"First cousin on the grandmother's side. The old lady married into the Alesandres."

"How do you know all this?" When Zelos opens his mouth, Sheena holds up a hand. "And don't say that it's because you make it your business to know. We don't need to revisit that."  
"It was part of my education."

"And what kind of education was that?"  
"Politics. The grandmother marrying in was a big scandal back in the day. She was the bastard daughter of a minor baron. No one could believe that she hadn't somehow tricked your grandfather into marrying her. A lot of people thought it was blackmail."

Sheena mulled it over quietly. "It's really just that crazy to them isn't it?"  
"What?"

"That people might actually want to marry outside their station for love rather than money or position."

Zelos shrugged. "That's Meltokio for you."  
"Is that where you're from?" Sheena asked curiously. Zelos didn't have a trace of an accent, nothing to hint at where he'd started life.

"Born and raised."

"Why'd you leave?"

"The Pope wasn't very pleased with me so I left before he could make me disappear against my will. That was ten years ago."

"What's happened with the King? He used to be a good one, but somehow…"

"No one knows exactly how the Pope got into power. There's probably some scandal in there too. Maybe the Pope's been blackmailing or poisoning the King. The King doesn't come out in public anymore and the princess usually takes over his public duties."

"What happened to the Queen?"

"She went riding one day with the family and her horse suddenly spooked and went over a cliff." From the way Zelos was looking at her, Sheena could see that it had been no accident.

"So who's this first cousin?"

"Marissa Lottingdale. She was widowed during the Purges, her husband having gone to help put out the fires. A burning beam fell on him. She's been living in Sybak ever since and when the Lady Alesandre stays in Sybak during winter, she stays with her."

"More of your 'education'?"

"If you could call it that. Since I doubt we're going to be getting any sleep," Zelos shifted, legs beginning to fall asleep. "Where was Uncle Hadjas from?"

"Triet."

"And his wife, Zarra?"

"A nomad tribe."

"Good memory."

"For some lessons, if I couldn't memorize the information, I had to go without food until I could." And sometimes, Kuchinawa would be right across from her, just as hungry.

"I'd call it harsh, but it's better than getting beat with a wooden sword."

"Your swordmaster?"

"Mmhm. If I ever let my guard down, he'd hit me once for the opening and once more for even having an opening."

"But you don't let your guard down in a fight now, do you?" Sheena smiled. She'd gotten a similar treatment.

"Not at all. Enough bruised bellies taught me that."

Sheena chuckled and fished the pack of cards out of her pack, wavering a bit as the ship rocked. "C'mon. Let's play a few rounds. Nothing better to do anyway."  
Zelos caught the cardboard box that she'd thrown at him and began shuffling the cards. "So long as you don't cheat."

"Same to you."

-/-/-/-

"You sure I can do this?" Sheena said, nervously twisting her hands in the dress skirt.

"Absolutely." Zelos replied, untangling one of her hands and clasping it between his to tug her up the garden path. "You know this information, remember? And if you don't by now, there is no way I'm buying you dinner."

Sheena couldn't help but chuckle at that,_(If I couldn't memorize the information, I went without food until I could)_ some of her nervousness easing. "If you say so."

The woman who answers the door is petite, with light brown hair cut fashionably short to frame a heart-shaped face and it made her green eyes stand out. Her clothes were simple, yet clearly of high quality.

Regal steps forward and smiles. "Lady Marissa. It's wonderful to see you in good health."  
Marissa seemed surprised. "Duke Bryant. It has been a long time, hasn't it?"

"Duke?" Sheena mouths and Zelos pats her hand, a warning not to bring it up and that they would tell her later.

"It has indeed. I wonder if you could spare a few moments of your time?"

"Oh, of course. Where are my manners? Come in, come in." Marissa stared at Zelos as he walked by. "Chosen? Is that you?"

Zelos' smile is plastered on because he felt Sheena's hand tighten almost to the point of pain. "You know I'm not really the Chosen anymore, Marissa."

"Zelos, then. Either way, the last I saw you, you were, what, ten, eleven years old? It's wonderfully strange to see you as a mature adult." Sheena snorted at that. "I'm missing something funny…"

Sheena couldn't stop the smile from spreading on her face. "Sorry, but the last thing I ever expected anyone to call him is mature."

Marissa laughed. "Then that means he hasn't changed. And you are…?"

Zelos and Regal glanced at each other. Moment of truth. "May I present the Lady Shera Alesandre."

Marissa's eyes widened and she circled Sheena carefully, reminding her of when she'd first met Zelos. _(What, were you a vulture in another life?)_ "She certainly looks like Shera. But so did many of the others. Where were you born?"

"At the Alesandre summer home."

"Correct. And how does Shera like her tea?"

"Two sugars."

And so the questions went on, ranging from Shera's opinions on the weather to obscure family occurrences. Finally, Marissa looked Sheena in the eye. "My last question and forgive me if it's a bit impertinent—how did you escape from the Purge?"

Zelos rubbed the bridge of his nose. How could he have forgotten that vital piece of information? And he was the only one with that information too!

Sheena looked down at her hands which were folded in her lap. "There was a boy…a boy who visited the house a lot. He…opened a wall. And he led me through it, but…then all I can remember is a lot of flames." Zelos raised his head, unable to believe what he was hearing. Sheena chuckled sheepishly. "I'm sorry. It must sound pretty crazy. Walls opening and such."  
Regal looked at Marissa. "Is she an Alesandre?"

"Well, child, you did answer every question."

Regal smiled at Sheena as he hugged her loosely before stepping away. He wasn't much of a person for physical affection, but Sheena made it easy. "You did it! Marissa, when do we see the Lady?"

"…I'm afraid you don't."  
All three of them looked at Marissa, who suddenly seemed very interested in the plates of crackers and cheese that she'd brought out to snack on. "Pardon?"

"The Lady simply won't allow it. She says she cannot bear seeing all of the false Sheras anymore."

"But Marissa, can't you think of someway for her to have a brief interview with the Lady? Please?"

Marissa looked at them. She'd known Regal since he'd studied at a Sybak University before he;d gone home to Altamira to join the King's Guards. He was a good friend and she'd become close friends with Alicia over the years as well thanks to him. And Zelos, she'd known him since he was a child. She knew as well as they did that the Pope's Purge had had their lives as collateral damage, which was why she hadn't turned them in on sight when she'd seen them at her door even though there was a price on both their heads.

And this girl, if she truly was Shera or not, was charming and her smile infectious.

"Well, there is the ballet tonight. The Fine Arts students put on a wonderful ballet twice a year. The Lady and I love the ballet. We never miss it. And if, by complete chance of course, you also happened to want to see the ballet, perhaps we would see you there."

"Well I would hope we did." Regal told her. "I would hate to miss a chance to catch up."

Marissa looked at Sheena. "This will sound very forward of me—it runs in the family you understand—but…do you have something else to wear? The ballet is very formal" Sheena shook her head. Marissa eyed her. "Well, you're a bit…curvier…than I am, but I might have a thing or two that'll fit. Come with me." As the men made to automatically walk with them, Marissa turned towards them. "This is female stuff. Stay here and smoke cigars and sip brandy or something."  
Regal chuckled. The woman hadn't changed a bit.

-/-/-/-

"I really can't accept this." Sheena said, stepping out.

Marissa waves away her protests. "Of course you can. Even if you're not Shera-" Seeing the look on her face, Marissa smiled. "I've seen many girls come in and out of here, hoping to convince me. Now don't get me wrong, you're the best so far, but until the Lady says so, I'm going to have trouble believing you. So, even if you aren't her, call it a favor to some friends."

"You've known them a long time?"

"Since before the Purge."

"Why did the Purge happen? No one seems to know."  
Marissa let out a deep breath. "It's not a nice story."

"They usually aren't."

"Twelve years, the Pope got his hold over the King somehow. Now, for whatever reason, he doesn't trust those with magic. Elves, half-elves, anyone. That included summoners." Sheena stiffens. Grandpa had explained her powers to her when the magic had first found its way to the surface. He'd told her that she was the last summoner, though he made it seem like they'd simply died out. "The Alesandres, they were a long line of summoners. Not that they really had pacts with the Summon Spirits recently. There were no wars and therefore no reason for it. But they respected the Summon Spirits, worshipped them like the Pope does the Goddess Martel. But apparently, their magic was too much of a threat to his rule, so he ordered the family killed. He made it look like an accident. An electric fire, they said. A tragedy, but an accident. Shera and her grandmother were the only ones to survive."

"How did the Lady survive?"  
"She'd been working in the garden when it happened. She wanted to go in after her family, but some bystanders held her back, said that she'd only get killed herself."

"He killed half-elves and elves too, didn't he?"

"Half-elves and dwarves mostly. He recognized the elves as still having some valuable resources that he could use, so he left them alone."  
"Why don't the elves do anything? He's massacring their own people!"  
"The elves don't recognize half-elves as their people. Neither do they recognize the elves who've gone out to live among humans."

"They're selfish cowards." Sheena could think of a few cruder words to describe them, but right now, they failed her.

Marissa sighed and nodded. "The Lady is of much the same opinion. She's been trying to convince the elves to recognize the half-elves as their citizens so that they'd be able to declare war on the Pope, but they refuse. They say it's not their problem."

"It'll be their problem before long if they keep ignoring things like this."

"You have a better grasp of politics than you let on."

Sheena smiled. "You can blame Wilder for that."

"I'm not surprised. Even if he never wanted to be the Chosen, he always was good at dealing with people. Perhaps not emotion-wise, but with politics and business relationships, he was good."

Thinking of how the entire con, Sheena said, "That he is."

"Are you involved with him?" Seeing Sheena's confusion, Marissa added, "Romantically, I mean."

Sheena snorted as she went back behind the changing screen. "When the sun shines in Hell."

"He seemed very protective of you. I've only ever seen him like that with his sister."  
"Yeah, no that's happening. I'm not looking for romance." She said as she slipped on another dress.

Marissa smiled mysteriously. She'd said much the same with her husband. "You might find one day, that that'll change."

"Uh_-huh_. Okay, I can't even breathe in this dress." Sheena said.

"One day, you might end up kissing a man you can't breathe without and you'll find that breathing isn't really a priority."

"So, what, you're saying that my prince'll come someday?"

"Hardly. Most men aren't princes." Marissa smiled as Sheena came out from behind the screen. "That one. Definitely that one."

Sheena twisted this way and that so she could see herself in the mirror, the dress' skirts swishing around her legs. "I think so too." 

-/-/-/-

"Hey."

Zelos glanced back, surprised to see her on the roof. Then again, Sheena seemed rather fond of high places. "Hey yourself."

Sheena sat by him and offered him a mug of coffee, which he took gratefully. It wasn't snowing in Sybak, not just yet, but that didn't mean that it wasn't cold. "You owe me dinner."

Zelos glanced at her. "What?"

The corner of her mouth lifted in a grin. "I memorized it all, didn't you hear? You owe me dinner."

"How's after the ballet sound? To celebrate?"

"Sounds good." Sheena leaned back on one hand. "So…Chosen, huh?"

Zelos winced. "I'd hoped you'd forgotten about that."

"I thought you didn't agree with the Pope's rule?"

"I don't."

"But you're the Chosen."  
_"Was._ Was the Chosen. I gave it up."

"How come?"

"My sister has elven blood." Sheena stared at him. "She's my half-sister. My dad was lovers with a half-elven woman and she had Seles. The Pope threatened to kill Seles as part of the Purge if I didn't step down."

"Were you a problem?"

"I was speaking out against him."

"And here I thought you were prejudiced against half-elves."

Red everywhere. On the snow, staining blonde hair, darkening an already red dress. "I am. But the Pope crossed a line."

"At least you know you're prejudiced."

Zelos was quiet for a moment. "A half-elf murdered my mother."

Sheena looked stricken. "I'm sorry."

"Wasn't your fault."

"No. Doesn't mean that I wish it didn't happen."

"I don't see why. You never knew my mother." It's a lie, Zelos knows. She'd met his mother. She'd gotten into mischief with him and they'd both stood and accepted Mylene's scolding.

Sheena shrugged. "Call me a bleeding heart."

"You're a bleeding heart."

Sheena stared at him for a moment before bursting into laughter. "Anyone ever tell you that there's such a thing as being _too_ literal, Zelos?"

She'd called him Zelos. It wasn't the first time, but this felt…different somehow. "I'm sure people have. I tend to ignore them."

"That explains so much."

A comfortable silence stretches out between them as they stare out at Sybak. It's a quiet town at night, nothing like Mektokio. "A toast." Zelos says finally, holding up his mug.

"To what?"

"To the future."

Sheena smiled and clinked her mug against his. "To the future."


End file.
